Miami-Dade County mayor: ‘Rubio will win Florida, get campaign boost’

The polls say that Donald Trump holds a commanding 20-point lead in Sen. Marco Rubio’s home state of Florida, but that doesn’t seem to be shaking the confidence of Carlos Gimenez, the Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County.

“We think [Rubio] will win Florida,” Gimenez told Fox News Latino on the eve of the Tuesday winner-take-all primary. “And by doing so, his campaign will get a boost, and the people of the United States will give him a look.”

Gimenez, a Republican and Cuban-American who is a retired firefighter, endorsed the junior senator from Florida in the GOP presidential race.

“I’ve known the senator for a long time,” Gimenez said. “He’s a man of integrity. He’ll make a great president. He’s got the right ideas and the right vision to move America forward.”

So why has he languished in the primaries and delegate count behind real estate baron Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz?

“You’ve had one candidate who sucked all the oxygen out of the air for a long time,” he said, referring to the real estate mogul. “A couple of debates ago, he rumbled in with Mr. Trump. That’s not really Marco.”

The mayor said Trump and others' radical stance and proposals regarding immigration and trade would have an impact on Miami’s growth and economy.

“Anything that hurts trade with Latin American is not going to be good for us,” Gimenez told FNL. “We are the Gateway to the Americas. We need that connection.”